


Happy Birthday

by dayishujia



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Torchwood
Genre: After Children of Earth, Canonical Character Death, Gen, M/M, tw: allusions to eating disorder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 11:09:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3206993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dayishujia/pseuds/dayishujia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Almost a year after the terrible incident with the alien species only known as the 456, Jack found himself on a distant planet, not too much unlike Earth. Most people have already forgotten all about it - if they ever knew at all. Earth was just some distant, puny little planet in a far-off galaxy to the people of this planet and overall quite unimportant to the workings of this solar system.  </p><p>Everyone already forgot, except Jack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Happy Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> spoilers for torchwood season three / children of earth
> 
> warning for slight allusion to eating disorder
> 
> inspired by
> 
> 我知道伤心不能改变什么 // I know that being sad won’t change anything  
> 那么让我诚实一点 // but it lets me be a little more honest.  
> source: 温岚 Landy Wen - 祝我生日快乐 Wish myself a happy birthday (poor trans. is by me)
> 
> read on tumblr @ lilmissgingewrites.tumblr.com

Almost a year after the terrible incident with the 456 that prematurely ended the lives of his grandson, his lover, and a handful of others, Jack found himself on a distant planet, not too much unlike Earth – the planet he had come to call home. Whether out of a bit of homesickness or nostalgia, Jack made a very-temporary, simple, makeshift home on the planet.

Naturally, Jack skipped forward a couple dozen centuries in time as soon as he could manage it, as if to runaway from not only the actual event as well as the memory of it. By the year he had found himself in, most people have forgotten all about it if they ever knew at all. Earth was a distant, puny little planet in a far-off galaxy to the people of this planet and overall quite unimportant to the workings of this solar system. 

Everyone already forgot, except Jack.

When he woke up that morning, in the little hole-in-the-wall he lived in, he felt oddly warm. It was uncharacteristic for the season and Jack was sure he didn’t leave the heater on through the night. As he laid in bed, he staring at the ceiling and pondered, if only for the simple fact that he absolutely did not want to get up and face another day quite just yet. 

Every day since the incident seemed to drag on longer and longer. Even when the planets he was on only had a couple Earth-hours worth of daylight, time just drug its feet along, as if to punish Jack, to remind him of his choices. 

Eventually, Jack pushed himself up and swung his legs off the cot he slept in, slowly encouraging himself to at least bathe and eat, if nothing else. He had managed to scrub any remnants of yesterday of his skin in a blisteringly hot shower and got some bread in him before checking the date.

On Earth, it was 19 August of the year 2992 and suddenly there was an overwhelming urge bubbling up in Jack’s gut to throw himself back onto the cot and waste the day curled up under the blanket.

Knowing he couldn’t very well hide forever even if hiding under his blanket did sound appealing, Jack gave a bitter grin and threw what was left of the bread onto the table. “Well, it’s that time of the year again, isn’t it, Ianto,” Jack chuckled humorlessly, speaking aloud to no one but himself. “I guess I should at least get you a birthday cake, huh?”

Finding a cake wasn’t the easiest thing to do on this planet but he found something that would suffice and the smallest candlesticks they had in the store and returned to his home-of-sorts.

Jack dumped the bag with the make-shift cake and accompanying candles on the table to be dealt with later. 

When Jack finally got around to dealing with the cake and candles later in the day, he had eaten a little more, drank a lot more, and got into a bar brawl with a couple of the locals. His knuckles were bloody and bruised as was the rest of him but he supposed it was fitting.

With the sun already set on this planet after only a number of hours of daylight, the candles in the mock-cake shimmered and glowed in the darkness of the room, splaying long, flickering shadows that appeared to dance along the edges of the walls. 

Jack smiled again, this time, a lot less bitter and a whole lot more miserable. 

“Happy birthday, Ianto,” he said, his voice coming out no louder than a whisper. Absently, guilt struck him that he was never quite as mournful over Alice’s or Steven’s birthdays but he brushed that feeling aside to wallow in at a later date. 

Part of Jack, although knowing he was completely alone, expected to hear a response. Something like “How very dramatic of you, sir,” or, at the very least, a quiet “thank you sir,” like he did the first time he celebrated Ianto’s birthday with him. So he waited for a moment, just in case he did hear something, and let out the breath he was holding when there was only silence. 

“In your time, it’s already been 983 years and I haven’t broken my promise just yet,” Jack bleakly assured, as if actually talking to Ianto himself. “I know what you’d say though. You’d tell me that even though it’s been 900-plus years for you, its only been less than one for me and that’s cheating.” Jack chuckled, slightly tickled by his own tactless impersonation of his late-lover. “Well, you’re right. As usual.”

Jack let a couple moments pass by in silence. He gazed at the cake as if bitter that it wasn’t Ianto and let out a long sigh. 

“I wish thousands of years already passed, Ianto,” Jack whispered, “because maybe then the pain of knowing I sent a child – my own grandson – and… you… to your deaths will have eased.

… I just want this to be all over.”

Jack bowed his head and let the couple of tears that were pooling up in his eyes spill over.

When he gathered himself again, Jack’s cheeks were stained pink with tears and his blue eyes were swollen. He gazed at the cake once more and said, with a sad sort of finality, “happy birthday.”

Jack smiled a little, the best one he could muster given the circumstances, and blew out the candle.


End file.
